“You can’t leave Benin now,” Mrs Ajayi said to Imade on the phone, the next day. “I can’t imagine how chaotic it is over there. What are the police doing about it?”  “I really don’t know. They said they’re looking for her, trying to retrace her last steps. Honestly, I don’t have much faith in […]

The atmosphere was rife with tension, fear, and accusations. Mrs Osakwe had hidden herself in her office after calling Imade to tell her about Lara. When Imade saw her, head in hand, she looked smaller, like she had shrunk within the space of a few hours. On the phone, she had sounded frantic, out of […]

The bad thing happened, but it didn’t happen until a day to the outreach. It didn’t happen until other tiny, good things happened in Imade’s life.  Good things like exchanging Whatsapp chats with Dapo. Like laughing over funny little anecdotes with him and sometimes, Yvonne. Good things like visiting the orphanage, sometimes rolling up her […]

DAPO  When Dapo had suggested an ‘apology’ lunch, it had been a joke. At first. But the more he thought about it. The more he realized he would love a redo of their first meeting. What he hadn’t expected was that he would enjoy her company this much, but as he sat opposite Imade, icecream […]

Service over, Imade remained seated, unwilling to leave before speaking to Dapo. Intent on dropping the burden on her heart.  Through the service, her eyes had wandered to Dapo once, twice. A little awestruck, she decided, at what he had become. Who he had become.  Who would have thought that the petite mischief-maker would evolve […]

Imade had not been sleeping well. And she knew why.  It had been three days since she last saw Pastor Dapo, since she almost had an unnecessary breakdown, and three days since she spoke to him. She had ignored the nudging of the Holy Spirit to reach out and apologize.  Shame, not pride was her […]

Smallie had changed, and Imade couldn’t stop stealing glances at the grown man who sat opposite her in the hotel’s restaurant.  “What?” he asked, when he caught her looking, a tiny smile lining his lips. “You should take a picture. I hear it lasts longer.”  “Oh, you’ve got jokes,” Imade laughed. “I wish I could […]

Mrs Osakwe’s ‘office’ was a small space carved out in the common room area, with wooden boards demarcating it from the rest of the room and giving a false sense of privacy.  Her desk was a scratchy dark-blue plastic table with piles of paper crowding it. Our Daily Manna devotional sat atop the hill of […]

Benin was demure in a way Abuja wasn’t. There were no men in flashy sports cars zigzagging through the streets, intimidating other road users. Some of the roads were riddled with potholes and patches of elephant grass. Where Abuja thrived on the cab system, most of Benin’s occupants ambled about in red and yellow buses. […]

“We have a project that we think you are the perfect person to oversee,” Mrs Ajayi said.  “Is it church project?” Imade asked.  “No, my dear. It is personal. Something that has been on our heart for a while. We want to acquire an orphanage.”  Imade gasped, “that’s amazing!”  “Yes. We want to do something […]